Sunday, October 08, 2006

Finishing the Hat

Until just recently there was serious gap in my fiber education. Cables. I knew what they were in theory, since somebody had the good sense to explain to me early on that a cable is nothing but a particular set of stitches worked out of order on a particular row. Yet I hadn't put them into a project.

This was in part a reaction to the unfortunate tendency of so many knitwear designers to heap cabling into patterns for men. I suppose it's meant to look butch. Alas, cables in profusion make a sweater very bulky, very heavy, very hot, and very busy. No, thank you.

But after taking Beth Brown-Reinsel's class at Stitches Midwest, and studying that nice Mrs. Thompson's book with all the handsome stitch patterns in it, and seeing what balanced, appealing pieces some knitters have made for themselves, I got curious. Not curious enough to cast on a whole sweater, but curious.

So I made this.

I was going to call it the "Cable Curiosity Hat," but that sounds twee, so I've settled on the "Fear of Cabling Hat." It's an oblique tribute to my parents, who taught me to tackle anything I didn't understand by jumping in and just doing it until it became (you should pardon the expression) old hat. This is a small object, but there are 16 cables in it and collectively they twist 96 times. A fellow would have to be an unredeemed idiot to do something 96 times and still be not quite sure of it.

The pattern, if you even want to call it that, is puerile. Experienced knitters will know what I did just by looking at the picture. For the rest of us, here's a rough sketch.

1. Go get your copy of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. If you don't have a copy yet, buy one. It's standard equipment. In fact, if you simply keep knitting long enough it's possible that a copy will materialize on your shelf.

2. Locate the ribbed cable chart in the January chapter. You'll have to hunt carefully, as it's all of seven stitches tall and five stitches wide. Five stitches plus two purl stitches (to separate the cables from each other) is seven stitches. That's your basic motif.

3. I think I'm supposed to tell you to swatch but here's the unvarnished truth: nobody swatches for hats. Not after their first one, anyhow. If you're knitting a standard adult hat with worsted or DK weight yarn on needles that aren't freakishly huge or small, you need somewhere in the area of 100 stitches for a snug fit. Cables pull in a lot, so cast on an extra set of stitches or two.

4. This cable itself is a form of ribbing, so don't rib the brim. Just start the pattern. Instant gratification.

5. Knit and knit and knit. And knit. Cable cable cable cable cable. To figure out on the fly how much you ought to knit before you start the head shaping, go get Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Knitting Rules! and read the hat chapter.

6. For the head shaping, I wasn't exactly sure what to do so I decided to figure out a rule and apply it ruthlessly and see what happened. That's all a stitch pattern is anyway, right? So I decided to start the decreases in the purl separations between the cables, and to decrease using P2tog instead of K2tog because I'd never seen it done before. I settled on eight decrease points, since most hats I've encountered use 6-8 decreases and 8 fit perfectly into my stitch count.

And so my final decrease rule became:

First decrease round: knit one seven-stitch pattern complete, knit cable stitches of second pattern, P2tog.Subsequent decrease rounds: knit to within one stitch of established decrease point, P2tog.

By one of those coincidences that abound in knitting, the hat ended exactly as the final knit stitches were eaten by the purl decreases, and this is what I got.

Quite serviceable. And when worn, it has been pronounced "sexy" by a gentleman whose opinions in these matters I trust.

So there you are. Not by any means an original pattern, but it taught me what I wanted to learn and it yielded a hat that fits.

Now I have to go tackle the housework, as it presently looks as though I suffer from a Fear of Doing Dishes, Fear of Making the Bed, and Fear of Sorting Through All the Crap on the Kitchen Table.

But First...

A quick shout out to the 40+ folks who are now on the invite list for the Chicagoland Dulaan Knit-In. Yes, you can still ask for an invite (which doesn't mean you're promising to come, it just means you're interested). Great Sainted Mary Thomas, I was hoping I might get 10 responses. And now we even have people coming in from out of state. Knitters, need I say it, are amazing.

And another shout to the nearly two dozen folks who have offered some really terrific prizes. It's going to be better than Christmas the sacred or secular gift-identified festival of your choice. I'll get to contacting all the donors either today or tomorrow, as my schedule allows. Or maybe I'll make Dolores do it, once she gets home.

Congrats on the hat, Franklin! (And your parents sound like mine. Only their version was, "Find a book about it." [g]) Very cool hat, looks elegant, and equally elegant solution! Hats are fun. Cables are moreso. Enjoy!

'kjooawmb'?? Oooookayyy... I swear, a collection of Blogger verifications could make up an alien language.

Very nice hat! "Son with the Big Head" might like it. I'll have to show him. Thanks for the inspiration. I've been making cables since I was a wee one but never on a hat for the son! Knit on! From Sara in WI where we are supposed to get snow Wednesday night! (Not ready!)

I think a lot of fear of knitting is fear of math. Sexy use of math, Franklin. Those decreases look awesome. Also, perhaps this is a tip you've gotten before, but when I knit cables on a subway I use a bobby pin as a cable needle. I only had to lose one cable needle on a crowded subway to figure that out.

Very nice hat. Cables are a grand thing and when done correctly (with the correct weight yarn) do not need to be bulky, hot things but wonderfully warm things that retain the wearers body heat . . . or at least that was what my Gram told me.

I too wanted an all over cable sweater without looking like I was about to go out whale hunting. I like a aran sweater, but not for me .Me wants sexy cables please.Me found Teva Durham. MMMM sexy cables. Why is Teva's cables so sexy? She shapes the body with decreases between the cables.Go now and see her Cabled Riding Jacket in her loop de loop book. Mmmm sexy cables.Now we gots to get her to do some sexy man cable goodness too. Eh? ( I 'm allowed to say "eh" cause I'm from the great white north)

Dear Franklin,I just read your cable post.I used to have bobble phobia. Mind you, I have been knitting since the 2nd grade, am now 43, so I can knit with the best of them etc. Lots of practice, at any rate. Yet bobbles...never touched 'em. Why? In high school, there was a girl sitting in front of me in physics class, who was knitting a green and orange acrylic sweater, covered with bobbles. That scared me away from bobbles, until I met Melissa Leapman a couple of years ago. That woman sat me right down, the night before her edgings class, and said: Karin, you can do this. I never stood a chance, neither did the bobbles. I still won't incorporate them in everything I make, if you know what I mean. But it was worth getting cured.All the Best, and Happy Cabling,Karin

Hi Franklin!Love your blog, and I adore Delores. If you'd like to try a good project to learn cabling sans cable needle, I love the Natalya gauntlet/wristwarmers. http://www.savannahchik.com/patterns/natalya.pdf

Also, if you liked the Baby Surprise Jacket, you might like EZ's Ribwarmer pattern. I love it. I got the "Ribwarmer Revisited" pattern from Schoolhouse Press, an updated version. Easy knit, amazing design, wonderful to wear.

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